Surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal devices
First Claim
1. A liquid crystal device comprising:
- a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and
first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations.
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Abstract
A liquid crystal device including a ferroelectric liquid crystal disposed between plates treated to enforce a particular ferroelectric molecular orientation to the plates. The devices employ along or in combination non-planar boundary conditions, polar boundary conditions, boundaries with multiple physical states, intrinsic spontaneous splay distortion of the polarization orientation field, combined ferroelectric and dielectric torques, layers tilted with respect to the plates. The plates are spaced by a distance sufficiently small to ensure unwinding of the helix typical in a bulk of the material to form either monostable, bistable or multistable states which exhibit novel electro-optic properties. The liquid crystal is responsive to an externally applied electric field, temperature or the like to make a light valve or other electro-optical device.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A liquid crystal device comprising:
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a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A process of making a liquid crystal device including a ferroelectric liquid crystal, molecules, having long axes, in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices and first and second means for containing said liquid crystal, said process comprising the steps of:
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aligning the molecules of said liquid crystal adjacent to at least said first means at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, but free to move between at least two particular orientations; andsuppressing the formation of said helices. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification